The Scythian Buddha: Kurgan burial mounds

Garrett Ryan (Toldinstone); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The "Bimaran casket or reliquary" of Eastern Afghanistan (Scythia/Gandhara)

Drug use in Ancient Greece and Rome

(Toldinstone, Sept. 17, 2021) The Ancient Greeks and Romans used opium, a plant heavily cultivated in Afghanistan (Scythia/Gandhara/Bactria), marijuana ("kush" originating near the Hindu Kush mountains -- the Himalayan backdrop of Afghanistan, Central Asia,  particularly the Buddhist city of Bamiyan, home of the world's largest Buddha statues.

This soapstone vessel contained the Buddha depicted in gold:

• 

  Buddhist White Tara with blue lotus

  See the same burial mound gold discoveries known as the Bimaran casket
• Who were the Kurgans, their religion (pre-Buddhist wanderer-nomads who settled along the Silk Road), culture, and burial mounds (Buddhist stupas or ancient tumuli/kurgans)
• What does Indian historian Dr. Ranajit Pal have to say?

The Scythians/Shakyians/Sakas were famous for a drug combination known (to Indo-Aryans) as soma (Ariyan/Iranian haoma), the ingredients of which are unsure but such entheogens as blue lotus (Sanskrit utpala), hashish, and fermented mare's milk or psychedelic mushrooms seem to be key to this amrita (nectar of immortality or the deathless, Pali amata).

Sacred magic mushroom for amata?

The ancients used opium and other narcotics (like the mythical nepenthe mentioned in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven") to relieve pain and induce sleep or cause forgetfulness. They may have also enhanced rituals and enlivened banquets with hallucinogens.

If this video was good, one might also enjoy Toldinstone/Garrett Ryan's book Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

For those so inclined to find Ryan on the Web:

• Reddit.com/Ask Historians/Toldinstone
• Instagram.com/toldinstone
• Goodreads/Author Garrett Ryan
• Patreon: patreon.com/toldinstone

Further reading on ancient drug use (toldinstone.com)

Chapters:

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:01 Of Scythians and cannabis
• 1:49 Medical uses of opium
• 3:18 Medical uses of cannabis
• 4:15 The poppy goddess
• 4:41 Drugs in Greek religious ritual
• 5:23 The Eleusinian Mysteries
• 6:01 Recreational drugs in Ancient Rome
• 6:53 Problems of evidence
• 7:21 Conclusion